Caramel Chocolate Pudding Made Simple

This is my first recipe to the blog. It is a simple yet delicious pudding. I dedicate this blog to all my friends who encouraged me to start a food blog and post my recipes.

Inspired by my mom's 'Caramel Custard Pudding' (shall post this later) I tried this pudding which is easy, fast and done without adding egg. The soft creamy pudding just melts in your mouth! 

INGREDIENTS

CHINA GRASS ----- 100 mg

MILK ----- 500 ml
SUGAR ----- 4 tbs
CHOCOLATE (grated)                             

FOR GARNISH (optional)

DRY FRUITS, SAFFRON

METHOD

China grass or 'Agar' is an ingredient used in desserts throughout Asia. This is a vegetarian gelling agent found in different flavours and available in most of the supermarts. It can be a base for lot many desserts or can be used by itself. Here I used a brand called 'Blue Bird' - Vanilla flavour. The content of this pack is in tiny crystals and does not require sugar.

1. Caramel base - take a heavy bottom vessel and add 4tbs sugar. Add few drops of water and heat it on high flame. Sugar tends to dissolve, melt and starts boiling. We need to slightly burn this syrup and get the beautiful honey coloured caramel base. Now reduce the flame to medium and keep rotating the vessel so that the caramel starts coating the sides of the pan and burns evenly. Caution required not to over burn it. When you see that the golden brown colour is formed, put off the flame and soon transfer the contents to smaller serving bowls or you may keep it as it is.


2. Pudding - boil milk and add a pack of china grass to it and cook for 2mins. The content gets cooked and thickens a little. Remove it from the stove.

3. Layering 

•  Pour one layer of china grass to the bowl with the caramel base
• Now add a thin layer of grated chocolate, instead you can also use chocolate sauce or homemade melted chocolate
• Sprinkle some dry fruits, I added some blueberries  
• Again add the layer of china grass pudding
• Top it with grated chocolate, saffron and almond pieces

4. Serving - Keep the layered bowls in  fridge, after it reaches room temperature. It sets very quickly. Keep it for an hour to cool and serve chilled.

Note:   The caramel should be poured to heavy glass bowls only. The high heat content may otherwise crack the glass bowls